HELP!!! Excessive water usage! Cylinder head/gasket/rad??

[austinsom]

Hi Guys,

Got a bit of a problem here!

Yesterday afternoon I was heading home from work and the coolant light came on, luckily I had a water bottle in the car so I topped it up. When I got home I checked it again, and it had used about a litre of water, which I thought was a little excessive in 16 miles!! Sure enough same happened again today, so it's now off the road! Question is, what is it?!

My thoughts are it could be the gasket, but I haven't noticed a trace of any mayo on the oil cap/dipstick/coolant cap. It does seem to be putting out a little more condensation out the pipes, but none of the white fluffy cloud variety!

Is it likely it could be the cylinder head?

Also I have seen there is a dent in my rad where the fan has hit it (?!). Indeed last time I had it worked on the guy spotted it and said it had a leak from there, but it needed topping up maybe once a month if that. Now it needs topping up twice a day. Would a leaky rad just give up the ghost!?

Your thoughts would be much appreciated as I'm panicking just a little, as I have to wear a suit for work, and my other method of transport is not suit friendly!!

Thanks in advance

Greg

[dazleeds]

sorry to hear that mate
first check thermasttat change if poss check water pumps wprking mine snapped and killed head

flush water through and bleed air and see how it goes then if it still does it then prob gasket or cracked head sorry
sure someone will have better advice but ive had it happen twice Daz

[austinsom]

Thanks for the reply, thermostat has been changed, and the car doesn't get especially hot, it runs about 1/4 most of the time. I also noticed when I stopped for petrol steam coming out from the Kidney grills, and when I opened up the bonnet, there was collant on top of the radiator, and on the tips of the fan blades, as well as on the leading edge of the under bonnet insulation.

If it's a cracked head then it's the end of the road for this 325 as I cannot afford to fix it I'm hoping it's the rad, as it seems to only lose water when it's upto operating temperature and there is pressure in the system.

Not sure if it needs bleeding as have never let the water go that low, it's just about visible in the expansion bottle when I top it up.

Please don't let it be anything to do with the head

Cheers,

Greg

[Andy335Touring]

sounds like your rad is knackered by what you say ?

[smithy318i]

Check for leaks at the ends of the hoses / clips.
Check for pools of water on the ground.
If you dont have mayo and you dont have a boat load of STEAM then it is unlikely to be the head or gasket.

Radiators DO just give up. The constant expanding / contracting combined with high pressure, eventually breaks them. Chech this first!

[smithy318i]

It looks like im too slow at typing!

Bars Seal might fix it!
Or get a new Rad.

[psychochild187]

sounds like the rad
a cracked head wont steam of the grill
only a leak in that area will or if it was raining alittle it would do it from water sitting on the rad
but with the amount of water u found in that rad area it must be rad

i had a hose that was almost split form old age and being to tight , check your top hose as waters on top of your rad

my head went
but i had to top up alot for a while . and then the mayo came out of no where . never found water anywhere tho